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"SLAVES OF CORRUPTION"
Intro. In chapter 2 Peter is warning about the false teachers.
I. "WHEN THEY SPEAK GREAT SWELLING WORDS OF EMPTINESS."
A. What a descriptive phrase. It is high sounding verbosity without substance.
B. They seek to impress people with their eloquence.
1. You may be impressed, but when it is over you often ask yourself, "What did he say?"
2. Do you remember those oral exams, where when you didn't know the answer, you sought to just write a lot of words to try to deceive the teacher into thinking you knew something when you really knew nothing?
3. Paul warned the church in Rome of those who would come bringing division, he said that they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
4. Back in the first part of this chapter Peter declares that with feigned words they make merchandise of you.
5. The truth is that truth is simple.
C. There are ministries that truly seek to minister. They exist to give. There are other so called ministries that exist to be ministered to. They seek to be ministered to rather than to minister.
1. There is and always has been I guess those who are constantly seeking some cause in order to solicit funds.
2. I suppose that we will soon be hearing a lot of appeals for the quake victims in Colombia.
a. The problem is that on many occasions only about 5% of funds that you give actually get to those in need. The majority of the funds are pocketed by the fund raisers.
b. We had a lady in our church who thought she was supporting an orphan in Guatemala. Each month she would receive a letter from the child. She was taking a trip to South America and decided to stop in Guatemala and visit her little orphan that she had supported for so many years. To her amazement the child was not an orphan but was living with his family, and as a school assignment had to write a letter to her each month. The child had not received one penny of the support that she had so faithfully sent.
D. I believe that it borders on blasphemy when they suggest that if you give a certain amount that God will perhaps save a rebellious child. They will tell stories of how when someone gave that God healed or saved their child. You cannot buy the work of God or the gifts of God. That is known as Simony.
II. THEY ALLURE THROUGH THE LUST OF THE FLESH. OR THEY USE LUST AS THEIR BAIT. OR THEY APPEAL TO THE LUSTFUL DESIRES OF OUR SINFUL HUMAN NATURE.
A. When I was in Bible College in a class known as pastoral theology we had a professor who used a lot of drama to get his point across to the class.
1. Pastoral Theology dealt with many of the practical aspects of the ministry.
a. Proper etiquette in making hospital calls.
b. How to perform a wedding.
c. How to perform funerals.
d. How to baptize people.
e. How to take an offering.
2. To illustrate how to take an offering, he had three people get up and receive an offering from the class. Because we were Seniors, the offering was to go for the Senior Class gift to the school.
a. The first person sought to appeal to our sense of virtue we should give in appreciation for all the school had meant to us. I think that the offering was around 50 dollars.
b. The second one tried to impress us with the need that the school had for a new sound system and that we should seek to provide that need as our senior class present. Again the offering was about 50 dollars.
c. The third person told some stories of people who had given fifty dollars to the Lord, and the following week, they received a check for over five hundred dollars. Another who had given a hundred dollars to the Lord and they won five hundred dollars worth of groceries. Someone else who gave and was healed of their cancer, still another who after they gave their father who had resisted the gospel for years called them wanting to receive Christ. The whole class was shouting over these exciting stories of how you cannot out give God. They appealed to our lusts, and the offering was over 1,000 dollars.
III. THEY BRING THEM BACK INTO THE ERRORS FROM WHICH THEY HAD ONCE ESCAPED.
A. There is a lot of teaching on relativism today. Truth is what you perceive it to be. They try to tell you that perverse lifestyles are acceptable because that is just the way we were made. You can find animals doing the same thing so it must be natural. Yes it is natural as Paul said of the life in sin, "We were by nature the children of wrath even as others."
1. Many are living in immoral relationships because they have been assured that it is all right.
2. Many feel that indulging in alcoholic beverages is all right as long as it is done in moderation.
3. Thus the witness of the church has been greatly diluted because there is very little difference between the Christian and non-christian in lifestyle.
4. Separation from the world is not a popular topic in the church today.
a. Rarely do you hear the scripture quoted, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world for he that has the love of the world in his heart, has not the love of the father."
b. The seeker friendly churches do not use the scripture that says, "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God and he that would be a friend of the world is an enemy of God?"
c. I pray that no one living in sin will find comfort in this church. I pray that you will receive conviction.
IV. "WHILE THEY PROMISE THEM LIBERTY OR FREEDOM."
A. Is that not the big cry in the world today. Freedom.
1. Is not this the very issue that liberals are espousing?
2. Freedom of speech.
3. Free sex.
4. Freedom from guilt.
5. How they hate the message of Jesus, "Unless you repent, you will perish."
B. The freedom to indulge in any kind of sexual perversity as long as you have consenting adults.
1. The result is that people having received this new found freedom have cast aside the restraints and are pursuing all manner of lusts.
2. There are those who are demanding that we accept their sinful life styles.
3. There are those who are advocating the freedom to use drugs. Californians passed a law making it legal to use marijuana for medicinal purposes and it is amazing how many people suddenly developed maladies that required the ease and comfort that marijuana brought to them.
C. The big question however is, "Are they truly free?"
1. Peter calls them slaves of corruption.
2. The problem is, if you feed lust it only grows, the more you feed it the bigger it gets.
3. Soon it becomes bigger than you are and it demands to be fed, and you become not its master, but its slave.
D. Peter calls it "Slaves of corruption."
1. There are some of you here today who have become slaves of corruption.
2. When you first started flirting with the situation you never intended that it go as far as it has gone.
3. You now find yourself trapped. It masters you and is destroying you, but you do not have the power to resist, you have become a slave.
III. "FOR OF WHOM A MAN IS OVERCOME, BY THE SAME IS HE BROUGHT INTO BONDAGE."
A. I do not need to talk to you about bondage today, you know all about that.
B. I want to talk to you about freedom from bondage.
C. True freedom is only possible through Jesus Christ. Listen to the words of Jesus on this subject.
JOH 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, you are truly My disciples;
JOH 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
JOH 8:33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: what do you mean, You shall be made free?
JOH 8:34 Jesus answered them, I am telling you the straight truth, whosoever commits sin becomes the slave to sin.
JOH 8:36 If the Son sets you free, you shall be really free.
D. This was the purpose of God in sending His Son Jesus into this world to set men free from the damning consequences of sin.
1. Sin can be defined as anything that is harmful, destructive, or detrimental to your health or relationships.
2. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life, and that more abundantly."
a. The abundant life, that is what He brings to you.
b. The life of true freedom from those things that have enslaved you and are gradually destroying you.
3. Jesus said that He was sent to save, or to liberate. He did not come to condemn. For men were already condemned or in bondage.
4. The bottom line is, "You can be free from your bondage to your lustful passions if you desire. The only reason you continue in the path of destruction, is that you love the evil practices that you are engaged in."
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
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